


Incandescent

by WahlBuilder



Category: Mars: War Logs, The Technomancer (Video Game)
Genre: Age Difference, Character Study, M/M, Multi, Technomantic Culture, Worldbuilding
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-31
Updated: 2018-08-31
Packaged: 2019-07-05 02:16:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,194
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15854172
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WahlBuilder/pseuds/WahlBuilder
Summary: Rogue Auroran Technomancers arrive to Noctis, seemingly in search of Roy. They bring a certain relic with them.





	Incandescent

**Author's Note:**

> With a dash of Dandolo/Melvin and Sean/Zach.

**D3 W53 YT75**

When the rogue Technomancers arrived (from Aurora; sometimes it is difficult to see any difference, and sometimes that difference between Zach’s family and Auroran Technomancers is glaring), Tenacity and myself were prepared for a violent confrontation. Tenacity knows more about Roy, but despite Roy’s initial reactions and words I understand well that his relationship with his power, with the Source, with whatever he was brought up with is more complex than simple hate or disdain. The Prince has established rapport with Zach’s people, gave them shelter, resources, more—it wasn’t unrealistic to assume that the Auroran Technomancers might come, too, one day, though perhaps in lesser numbers.

But to assume they would come for Roy specifically…

I cannot even pretend to understand what’s going on. There are twenty one of the Technomancers. They came dressed no better than any travellers, but their posture, gaze, staves, the way they talk, the way they carry themselves—all of this sets them apart. They have some relic, wrapped in many layers of oiled mole leather—something that makes Roy’s face darken. He is quiet and doesn’t sleep much.

(NB: I think there is a garden right inside the palace? Need to ask the Prince)

 

**D6 W53 YT75**

Nobody knows what the Technomancers want from Roy: they are discussing things behind closed doors. Tenacity says they have no chance because ‘Roy is the most obstinate fucker on Mars’ (I’d disagree).

Roy hasn’t slept with us for three nights already. Temperance is whining.

 

**D7 W53 YT75**

There was shouting, Roy’s voice, then he left the room they have been using for discussions. Roy stormed out of the palace—Shara, one of the guards, says he went to the cliffs.

What is going on?

I don’t even know which of the Auroran Technomancers to ask. They don’t seem to have a leader, and it is difficult to overcome my upbringing and to stop thinking they are something different than human. Roy is human. I watched him bleed.

If they upset him again, I won’t hesitate before going to them, however.

 

**D3 W54 YT75**

Roy hasn’t returned. He is sighted here and there throughout Noctis, so we know he is at least alive. Tenacity says we should let him ‘do his thing’, even if that ‘thing’ means him wandering about in solitude. Tenacity doesn’t fool me: he is just as worried as I am. Broke a part of Temperance’s harness today.

We hardly sleep.

(NB: retraced my steps to the garden, but couldn’t find it. Forgot to ask the Prince.)

 

**D5 W54 YT75**

Roy has returned! His jacket is splashed with something dark, like blood, but he is alive. He went straight to the Auroran Technomancers, looked over them, and nodded. Nothing else. Has disappeared again now, but he’s with them.

 ~~I hope he doesn’t~~ ~~I don’t want him to~~

Found the garden! It is as splendid as the glimpse of it suggested, and filled with sweet aroma—though it is occupied.

 

***

 

Innocence puts his journal on his knees, closes his pen, and watches the garden. It is full of sweet flowers that he hasn’t ever seen in rality, though they look like some flowers he has seen in old books. The garden is inside the palace, but there is a sense of being under the open sky: the chamber is so huge and so masterfully illuminated that the ceiling is not visible and the light feels like soft light of the dawn.

He is seated on a bench between bushes heavy with violet flowers the size of his fist. He has sketched one of them. They appear to be actually clusters of smaller flowers.

The garden is clearly intended to be used as a place of recreation, as well as a source of precious oils. Benches are here and there, secluded among bushes and trees.

One bench across a raised bed with yellow flowers and slightly to the left of Innocence is occupied. He has never seen the Prince with such a gentle expression on his face, holding hands with Master Melvin.

Innocence tries not to steal glances at them: their meeting here is obviously personal—but he cannot leave without alerting them to his presence either. So he’s lingering, sketching flowers and plants of the garden, the Prince’s tattoos, the details of Master Melvin’s uniform. His strokes are uneven: he wants to leave, to find Roy, make sure he’s all right.

One of the Palace guards comes into view. They stride to the Prince and bend to him to speak. Dandolo’s eyebrows rise as he listens. He exchanges glances with the frowning Master Melvin. The Dandolo sends the guard away, gets up, squeezing Master Melvin’s hand.

Innocence closes his journal, ready to slip out after them.

‘Innocence!’

He startles when the Prince’s voice calls his name. The Prince makes a few steps, right to his bench. Has he known all along? But then, it is his Palace.

Hoping that the blush on his cheeks won’t be noticed, Innocence gets up. Notices colour on Master Melvin’s cheeks, too. It seems the Technomancer didn’t know he was here in the garden, too.

Innocence nods. ‘Master Melvin. Dandolo.’

‘My boy. We are being called to attend… Actually my guard has no clear idea what. But I assume your presence won’t been unwelcome either.’

‘And why is that?’

Dandolo smiles. ‘It concerns your companion, Roy.’

 

***

 

They walk into a huge circular chamber. Its walls are etched, like so many places in the Palace, almost glowing. Innocence raises his head with a hand shielding his eyes from light suffusing the chamber. Here, he cannot tell whether it is below ground, above or something else. It reminds him of Olympus.

The chamber is full of Technomancers, although Zach’s non-Technomantic friends are here, too. And Tenacity. Innocences goes to him.

The Technomancers are standing in two circles. The outer one is Zach’s family, in full dark uniform and with staves expanded. Zach’s mentor is talking to him quietly. The inner circle is much more dense, and all Auroran Technomancers, in their long coats, the blue of them fantastic and unbelievable. Innocence has forgotten how imposing they can be. The Aurorans are arranged in threes, unlike the Abundanceans who are spread out evenly.

Roy is not among them. He is not anywhere, and Innocence frowns, because Dandolo’s words implied he would be here. Innocence _hoped_ he would be here.

He doesn’t want to think that Roy has left without them.

He finds Tenacity’s big hand and squeezes.

One of the Aurorans steps forward, their staff more intricate than those of the Abundanceans. They look at the non-Technomantic gathering beyond the circles. ‘You have been called to witness something that hasn’t been attempted in generations. It should not be dangerous to you, but in case it gets out of control, our Abundancean kindred shall shield you.’ The Technomancer glances at Master Ian and Zach, and both of them nod. Then the Auroran looks at Dandolo. ‘Prince?’

Dandolo waves. He looks deceptively at ease, but his eyes are sharp, and he keeps throwing glances at Master Melvin. And at the door across the chamber that Innocence only now notices.

Innocence’s heart is in his throat, and he doesn’t think that he imagines the building pressure. There are nearly half a hundred Technomancers here, after all.

The Auroran returns to their place in the inner circle. Everyone else straightens up. They raise their staves in one synchronised movement as though they’ve been rehearsing this for years—and bring them down to the floor. The ringing is loud, echoing off the walls of the chamber.

The door across opens. Another figure walks in. Dressed in the blue and gold of the Auroran Technomancers—but it’s unlike anything Innocence has ever seen before. Dark thin cables—or perhaps wiring—running over arms, legs, covering torso are like muscles, flexing with each step and minute movement. The feet, also covered with this dark wiring, are seemingly without shoes—but looking closely, Innocence notices ribbed golden soles. Over it all is not a coat—but robes of a gentle blue of the dawn, thrown loosely over the right shoulder and secured by a plain leather belt on the waist. Under the robe, legs of soft pants of the same fabric are reaching just above the knee, like the pants favoured by the Noctian merchants. The wiring of the right arm is covered by close-fitting golden plates: a pauldron, a vambrace, a gauntlet. Claws. The wiring covers the neck and reach further up, turning loose, like a bundle of braids.

The face is covered by a full mask made from something of pale white, but not gleaming, the expression eternally serene and genderless.

Innocence doesn’t need to see the face under the mask to know who that is. Tenacity’s hand squeezes his, and he knows Tenacity has recognised Roy, too.

Roy is walking with a staff, the ringing from it meeting the floor somehow a different sound than that of the staves of the other Technomancers. The staff is unlike anything else, too: it is not collapsible, or at least Innocence doesn’t think it is; it is longer than usual, a single piece covered with the same pale, almost glowing material that the mask is made of. The lower part of the staff is a long blade, perhaps the length of Innocence’s elbow, wide and curving to one side, black and with a rainbow sheen. The tip of the staff is not common either: it is of the same white, splitting into several branches that curve gently and come together again. It reminds Innocence of a flower just before it unfurls. Inside of that cage-bloom, something is pulsing with white-blue light. From the cage-bloom hang three rings, white, too, rattling with each step.

Innocence’s fingers itch for a pen.

Roy enters the circle and stands at the centre. The Abundanceans grips their staves tighter. The Aurorans, in threes, lock hands, the staves of those in the middle on the floor by their feet.

The pressure builds. Innocence’s lips start tingling, and he feels his short hair raising on end. He doesn’t jump when a spark runs between him and Tenacity—he is used to it with Roy—but this… This is something else.

Something big.

He sees sparks running over the Aurorans, their hands, their uniform; sparks turn into arcs, branching, splitting—but they are contained, somehow, to the inner circle. A sizzling sound, a clap. Innocence forces himself to look. Roy raises the staff, the white-blue inside it pulsating faster, faster—and brings it down.

The discharge is bright and ringing, and Innocence turns away, and glimpses shadows, sharp on the walls.

There are no sounds for a few moments. Then a drumming rises.

Innocence tries to blink away the bright afterimages, turns back to the circle. The drumming synchronises: it’s the Aurorans, the sound ringing and joyful.

The white-blue light in Roy’s staff is shining like a small star. He leans on it and brings his left hand up and takes the mask off.

It _is_ Roy. Innocence would have thought that such an attire would look strange on him—but it doesn’t. His scars, the dents on his temples, now with wiring plugged into them—he is where he should be. How he should be. His eyes are bright.

The Aurorans let out a loud cheer, and the inner circle breaks. The Abundanceans exchange glances, confused, but there is a small smile curving Zach’s mentor’s lips when Roy glances his way. Master Sean nods, and Roy returns the gesture.

Innocence tugs on Tenacity’s hand. ‘Let’s ask Roy about it!’

He half-expects to be pushed away by the Technomancers: they are not of the Source, they are simply… people. But the Aurorans part for them and let them to Roy.

Roy is looking at the mask, a thumb running over its surface. ‘Maybe I have the control needed for this, Severity,’ he murmurs, seemingly to himself, ‘but formally I don’t even have a trine and cannot operate.’

One of the Technomancers, the one who announced what would happen, smiles. ‘We are not in Aurora anymore, and this position was always special. Besides, you _do_ have a trine.’

Innocence catches them looking at him, and blushes, reaching for Roy’s hand. His left hand, too, has claws, although not gilded. Innocence takes it, and Roy startles, looking at him, at Tenacity. Then looking away. His cheeks visibly darken. ‘They want me to lead them.’

‘And do you want it?’ Innocence asks. There are bad nights when Roy wakes in sweat, and paces and paces in silent rage. Innocence won’t agree to it if it means Roy has more of such nights.

Roy turns the mask in his hand. ‘I don’t know yet.’ He holds the mask out to Severity, but the Technomancer shakes their head.

‘It’s yours until you decide you don’t want it.’

The white-blue light is shining cheerfully, and the rings on the staff rattle. ‘I’ll think on it,’ Roy says at length and looks at Innocence and Tenacity with a smile. ‘I have my trine to discuss it with.’

**Author's Note:**

> The attire Roy is wearing is the leftmost one [here](https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-eu8nkfRORKE/UjLuAp9bJnI/AAAAAAAAAsU/UqUogjNxV5I/s1600/32_Aurora_technomancers.jpg) (with a dash of artistic licence on my part).


End file.
